Is Family What Family Is For Family to Be a Family

“Sir, only family is allowed in here.”

Family?

FAMILY!

I had been racking my brain for weeks after I defeated Jiles for the Five Star Championship on what that word meant to me. During my celebrations I was given another example of what family could be when a video was texted to me during my announcement of joy.

It didn’t last long.

Joy is just a fleeting emotion, easily threatened from outside manipulation.

Don’t get me started on manipulation…oh wait, I am talking about family. It’s the same when your familial ties are with The Octopus.

I felt the fracture slowly start at the base of my spine and then stop with the excruciating pain felt in the back of my head. It was over. The haze I had been walking through for over two years was lifted and I was left with a burning corpse of my heart staring up at me.

I began to continually hear a whisper:

“Coward.”

“Coward.”

“Coward.”

It was my fault.

I had kept my distance in hopes she could escape the tentacles of my family. She was stubborn though and whenever I heard something about her, I felt hope.

She was ok: I will be ok.

She hasn’t given up on me: I must grin and bear my situation so I can find my way back.

Smack!

Smack!

Smack!

She falls and hits her head: I lose my mind.

Hah.

Did I actually lose it or rediscover it?

I will not cower any longer from my past and what’s to come.

The answer was so easy I mumbled to myself, as I stared at the eggshells stuck to the title.

It is.

It is.

It is.

Family…is whatever I say it is.

--

“Sir, only family is allowed in here.”

The Family’s drama has come to light, huh?

Yay.

I hope you are all happy.

I hope you went home after Revival 66 thrilled that Steve Harrison finally showed his true colors.

You were right all along.

You knew people couldn’t change.

You know…nobody but you can.

That new hat you put on in another pathetic attempt at hiding your receding hairline.

EMBRACE THE BALD.

Nobody is allowed a second chance, especially one’s hair.

Right?

This is where I just get petty. The world of wrestling is full of people who are never wrong. Any time one of us can claim the higher ground we take it. It wasn’t enough that I was trying to change, I had to do it the way Clay Byrd or Mama Owl deemed acceptable.

Impossible ideals to live by. It’s because they want a reason to continue to claim supremacy over you.

Nobody cared how I felt.

Nobody put in the work to ask why I was Stefan Hariston.

Why I was a drunkard.

The Pit left me a broken man and one of those that helped break that last bone is now giving you a controller, Clay. Ugh, your hypocrisy has no bottom. You can fuck all the way out of my life…forever. You are no longer considered family.

Conor Fuse…I hope you die of AIDs.

But…heh, here we are, huh? I don’t have any excuses because I didn’t do anything wrong. I exerted my authority over a foolish uncle who thought I was blind. I don’t care about what happens to me next.

I am not afraid. I made my decision, and I feel free because of it.

Isn’t that the dream, JCH…to be free? Should I call you Christopher? I am sure your mom did when you got in trouble and by the looks of it…you are in a lot of trouble. Not with your mom though.

Should that be off limits?

Too soon?

Don’t get confused, JC. I mean that noggin of yours. It brings you quite a bit of trouble.

I get it though. You have relied on a parasite for so long that you have come to realize that it was keeping you alive. It was your everything as it made all your decisions for you.

You told yourself it acted that way because it knew what was best for you. It wanted to protect you from the ugliness of the world as it lambasted you repeatedly about being a failure. It slithered from one opportunity to another, always promising you that it was all for you.

It cozying up to the Red Army was for you.

It left you for Cancer Jiles was because of you.

The parasite only cares abouts its needs, you are just going along for the ride, you sad sack.

Sad cuck?

How good it would have felt for you to hold the Universal Title and yell in pride without wondering where IT was. Now, you run around backstage trying to be accepted by anyone with a pulse. You must realize by now that they have taken everything they wanted from you already. There is nothing left of you, but the look of a depressed meth head slobbering to everyone who will listen to your pleas.

I don’t fully believe you have ever felt free.

A prisoner in your mind.

A prisoner in every relationship.

If this were last year I would have lent you my ear. I figured we would have a chat when Don Winters finally broke through to you. Unfortunately, he left you on read like he did everyone else because HE like IT only cares about themselves.

It must really kill your soul. Everyone you reach out to for connection leaves you and you become further desperate for any human contact. You know what’s coming, right?

Right, Jonathan?

Heh.

Heh.

The only ear I have for you now is listening to your limbs pop. Unless you want to thank me for beating my buddy Jiles.

Sigh.

I know the only thing you paid attention to during my victory was the actions of IT though.

Why isn’t she fighting like that for me anymore?

Oh, is she ok?

Look, you pathetic manchild if you really want to know, I can send IT a text message. Does that anger you? Don’t worry, no amount of condoms would make me feel comfortable freeing willy into that vast ocean.

Weak minded white trash like you don’t deserve to even breathe the same air as me. Your gloom chokes my bliss.

You are stuck in an infinite loop of despair and just seeing you makes me ill. It boggles my mind that someone can continue to dig a hole when the treasure was stolen from it ages ago. Doing the same thing twice is not going to improve your self-worth. The blind leading the blind seems to apply here, Jonathan…Christopher.

That brainworm is not going to heal the damage inside you, Jaycee.

Are you that afraid of a future without IT?

No, that is not it. You do not even see a future without IT.

Why are you still in PRIME?

Is it to be reminded every two weeks that your woman is feeding another man Ro Sparks pills?

I wouldn’t have been able to show my face to people after being buried under the weight of them smashing on top of me. I bet you told the nurse to bag the sheets up for you to take home so you could smell them later.

Sickening, I am not one to kink shame but damn, you are vile.

I apologize if you find this tough to hear, but I feel like you have heard some of this before.

You just don’t understand how to live without IT.

So, let me get you started on learning how to live without the use of your neck…

…You are spineless already anyway.

--

April 17th, 2025

I often find myself setting up the conference room for the meetings. Clarice is normally busy making tea or finding the correct cigarette brand for HER. She always likes to say that our relationship has no labels especially when others are around, but I always feel weird calling her The Marine Biologist. I am too old to complain about it at this point.

Today though, I entered the room to see Steve Harrison with his elbows on the table. He cupped his chin with his hands as he sat in the chair normally occupied by Ellis Jackson. I pinched my cheek to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.

When I realized that: no this is truly happening, I lost my composure and began to laugh. “Haha, before meeting prank?”

He didn’t even move his head to look at me, but I could see him hiss a chuckle from where I stood. “Without your help Doc, none of this would be possible.”

I gulped.

I was not supposed to involve myself with Octopus business and I had been warned several times. I was sure sending me with Ellis to talk to Rebecca was another way of checking my loyalty.

He turned his head and looked me dead in the eyes, “why are you sweating, Doc? Don’t tell me you are worried?” He laughed and turned his head upwards to stare at the camera in the corner of the room.

I was of course, not just worried, I was petrified that any minute SHE would walk in with Ellis and remove me from the meeting. What would happen next would be anyone’s guess. I just didn’t understand this family as well as I had thought. It had been just as odd to me as it had been for Steve, I recognized. I was always many more arms away from the truth than I had realized.

Maybe…well, maybe I didn’t know her as well as I thought. I dropped my head as I realized how pathetic that is, all that time and you find out you didn’t know anything at all.

“Oh, this is nice.”

My ears perked up and I turned swiftly to see HER glide into the room. Clarice followed behind and gave me a look. It was probably nothing, but I felt like everything was about to come crumbling down on top of me. Steve didn’t make a move. A smirk highlighted his face as if he had been waiting patiently for this.

Harrison finally blinked and stopped staring at the camera, “I hope that camera works. I don’t want today to go to waste.”

My mouth was agape after that comment. She just smiled at her son, the Immortal Jellyfish, and sat down in her chair. “What are you so confident about? That smile is unbecoming of someone who wishes to exert power.”

The Man of Miracles sneer faded a bit as he tried to find any crack in the face his mother was wearing. “Have you looked in the mirror?”

Without breaking a sweat, she nodded, “I already have the power, child.”

“Am I late?” JD Lawson walked into the room and immediately saw the flames going back and forth from his sister and nephew’s eyes. I was expecting something bad to happen, but he just shrugged and sat down.

“Our little man is feeling himself, brother,” She responded as she brushed some hair from in front of her soul stealing blue eyes.

This wasn’t beginning the way I thought it would and by the look on Steve’s face he was also very puzzled. JD nodded towards Steve, “about time.”

Harrison removed his elbows from the table and leaned back in his chair. He looked from Lawson to HER, “is this some sort of joke to you two? I am ready for anything you have in store for me, but I will never apologize for what I did to that leech. He better clean the title as well.”

“The initiation is over,” she said so calmly that I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand on end.

Steve stood up angrily, which forced me to move as quickly backwards as these old legs would let me. “Figures, you won’t even let me explain,” he slammed his fist to the table.

JD shook his head and pointed to Harrison’s chair, “sit your ass down. She said your initiation is over because…” he looked back at HER.

She sighed, “it is over because you passed, son. You are an official member of The Octopus. Congrats.”

I smiled and let out a deep breath. It would seem Steve and I had come into this expecting an execution and they had come into this like it was a Pizza Party. Steve sank back into his chair and pouted to himself in embarrassment at how this had gone down. “Uh…ok,” was all he responded with as quiet as a church mouse.

“Where did all that bravado go, nephew?” Lawson asked as he leaned over and stared at Harrison.

Steve tapped his right index finger on the conference room table as he thought to himself. He peered up and rolled his eyes at the grin from JD, “care to explain…well…what the hell just happened?”

“THIS IS BULLSHIT!”

Uh Oh.

The door swung open, and Ellis Jackson thundered through. He was like a rumbling earthquake, looking behind himself and pointing his finger at the strolling pair of William Morris and Dmytro. He turned and stopped in his tracks as his eyes stopped at Steve Harrison. The other two walked around him and sat down at the table next to Harrison. Steve did the rational thing of course and waved at Ellis, a sly leer returning to his face as his hand waved.

“What seems to be the problem, I figured a roach, even a sea living one would be skilled in cleaning up messes.” Harrison crossed his arms pleased with his shot at Ellis.

Ellis pointed at Steve as he walked around the table to the other side. He stopped and leaned over the table and looked at The Marine Biologist. His face was a mix of confusion and anger but seemed to be trying his best to bite his lip before he said something he would regret. “What the hell is going on here?”

The playful smile she had on for less than a minute had dissipated into a rage that seemed to burn from her eyes right through the body of Ellis. “SIT DOWN,” it echoed throughout the room leaving everyone straightening up in their chairs or looking for one to sit down in. That one was Ellis who lowered his gaze and grabbed the closest chair he could.

“Before your rude interruption, we were congratulating Steve on becoming a member of The Octopus,” she rained down that information with every bit of venom she could as she continued to stare holes through the eyes of Ellis.

He moved his arm and opened his mouth to react, but she was a thunderstorm and continued to pour down upon him. “You have no say in this. You are lucky to be given the opportunity to sit at this table. Did you honestly think that we haven’t noticed what you have been up to?”

“How much do you owe?” The stern voice of JD Lawson said as he commanded immediate attention. Harrison stared gleefully at what was going on and if he had a tub of popcorn he would be stuffing it in his mouth.

Ellis shut his mouth and dug down in his seat. It was like watching a fish give up the fight when flailing around after being caught gets them nowhere. It was the most defeated he had looked since I had known him and all I wanted to do was take a handful of that popcorn. “I…have no idea what you mean,” is all Ellis said as he looked down at the floor.

SHE clicked her tongue to her teeth and continued frowning at her brother, “you were never one to admit fault now, were you?” she sighed, “Steve was always meant to put you in your place, Ellis. I…well, we were more upset at him for taking so long. It was wonderful though. The look on your face when the video played and you turned to see your sweet nephew giving you the thumbs down,” she covered her mouth and laughed.

It was the most frightening laugh I had ever heard.

I looked back at Steve and saw his smile had disappeared. I knew him well enough to know he had just figured out that he had been used. “So…this whole initiation thing was just a farce? You just wanted to use me to humble this moron?”

“If you couldn’t find the backbone to do this, then what could you have possibly brought to us? We don’t need people who moan about things but don’t take the action required to fix the problem,” Lawson said, leaving no doubt that he meant every word he was saying to his former student.

Harrison paused before responding as he dissected the comments made by JD. He went to respond but then stopped himself. He took a small breath and exhaled whatever he almost said into the air. “Today isn’t the time to be annoyed about that. Today is a celebration and for my first gift,” he looked at Ellis, “I want you…

TO.

CLEAN.

THE.

FUCKING.

BELT.”

Ellis scoffed at that, and his face became bright red, “I am not the janitor, have that snitch Doctor Someoneloveme do it.”

Welp, that was directed at me. I could not stand him and the way he pretended I wasn’t there was infuriating. If I had been twenty years younger, I thought to myself. I didn’t need to say anything as she showed her control over The Octopus again.

“That’s enough you conniving roach. Where you are seated right now is where you will stay. You are at the bottom rung of management now. See yourself as the Jack Marley of the left side of The Octopus now.”

Everyone turned and stared at Ellis Jackson. We all seemingly witnessed someone’s brain stop functioning in real time. He stopped moving and both of his eyes began to twitch. He stood up as if controlled by puppet strings and stumbled towards the exit and mumbled, “clean, everything will be clean.”

The door closed behind him and everyone exhaled at the same time followed with a few laughs because as the story goes: nobody likes Ellis Jackson.

Harrison shrugged and with a grin hit us with a surprise, “well, now that we have taken care of that,” he started smugly like he had planned this, which we already know wasn’t the case. “Dmytro needs to go back to the Ukraine to handle some business and defend his allies from The Red Army,” he winked when he finished saying that, but he wasn’t done. “Doc will be taking his place next to me at the table.”

The room went quiet or maybe it was that time stood still as soon as those words hit my ears. SHE glanced at me and then gave her own son a look so sharp that I felt the knife going into his back for him. She didn’t say anything though and just nodded at Harrison. He stood up and walked over and leaned over to HER ear but instead of whispering something he kissed her cheek.  He stood back up and looked at everyone, “let’s talk later, everyone. This is what I call a family though, right? I believe I have a mission to take care of in Winnipeg. Hope to see you all there.”

With that he turned and headed out of the room leaving the area a dust storm of glances between everyone. I wasn’t sure what to do but my legs decided to move by themselves. I was suddenly sitting down in the chair that Steve had departed and looking in the eyes of the woman I had loved for over twenty-five years.

“This table is only for family,” she said. I blinked. My heart was being crushed in front of the remaining Octopus members. She sighed and said quietly, “maybe it is time.”

--

April 7th, 2025

I sat next to Rebecca Hines’s hospital bed and held her hand. I waited for anything, pressure from her hand, a blink of her eyes, or her toes to move. It didn't matter. I needed her to wake up. I needed her to tell me everything would be ok. I needed her to tell me that I didn't need to worry about what others thought of me. I needed her to tell me that what I was planning was the correct course of action.

I was going to bludgeon him,

I was going to leave him a bloody mess.

I was going to turn that crowd into a mass of idiocy and anger.

I was done.

Let them reap what they have sowed.

My eyes have been opened.

They will all feel repercussions.

“Sir, only family is allowed in here.”

This still echoes in my head.

“She is my family.”

It had been decided. I knew who my TRUE family was now.